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A SHORT CATECHISM 



FOR 








Copyright, 1884, by John J. D. Tkexok. 



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H. A. Host, Printing Establishment, 3 & 5 North William St., N. Y. 



I 



A 



^N ATTEMPT has been made, in the following 
pages, to draw up a Catechism embodying the 
moral principles and views of that section of the 
Republican party which nominated Mr. Blaine at 
Chicago and is now insisting upon his eminent 
fitness to occupy the Presidential Chair. 

If, as his champions assert, Mr. Blaine's con- 
spicuous virtues deserve such marked and universal 
recognition at the hands of the American people, 
the youth of the country cannot too soon have 
instilled into them the principles so much admired 
in him by his followers. 



For what were the founders of this Republic distinguished? 

For unselfish love of country, truth, honor, and probity, and for 
hatred of every kind of meanness. 

Are those who direct the affairs of the country to-day similarly 
distinguished ? 

Happily many of our leading men of all political parties are, but 
the temptations offered by the greatly increased wealth of the United 
States have proved too much for the integrity of many others. 

Who are these men ? 

The professional or " machine" politicians. 

For what are they distinguished? 

Generally for utter selfishness, a very low standard of honor and 
honesty, aptness for jobbery and peculation, and thinly disguised con- 
tempt for old-fashioned notions of the value of truth, rectitude and 
civic virtue. 

Will this description hold good of the machine politicians, as you 
term them, of both the great political parties? 

Yes, it will. 



Is it true of the men who are advocating Mr. Blaine's election? 

Eminently so. His selection as their standard bearer and candidate 
for the Presidency has nauseated the best men of the Republican party, 
who are in open revolt against having the representative of political 
dry-rot forced upon them. 

What are the symptoms of this special kind of dry-rot? 

The advocacy of ideas and practices such as they find themselves 
forced to espouse and champion iu Mr. Blaine. 

What are these ideas ? 

Their formost orators and most "influential" men tell us that lying 
equivocation and deceit, dishonorable practices, the barter of official 
influence, seJf-abasement and the lowest kind of selfishness are proofs 
of the "highest honor and integrity." 

Then, what is their definition of a lie? 

To judge by their present speeches, they hold there is no such thing. 
In the earlier and better days of this republic, any and every inten- 
tional violation of the truth was held to be a lie. But to-day the sup- 
porters of the Republican Candidate for the Presidency maintain that 
an intentional untruth is not a lie. 

What is their object in so doing? 

To prove that wrong is right, that dishonor is not dishonorable, that 
prostitution of official position for private gain is not shameful, and that 
inveterate lying is nothing but "brilliancy." 

Is it possible that influential men of the Republican party are engaged 
in thus debauching the public conscience? 

The answer is to be found in the daily press. The columns of the 
newspapers are full of speeches by the foremost supporters of the 
Republican candidate, who iusist that he is "above reproach, without a 
blemish or a stain," and not only that he is fit, but that he is actually 
the fittest man in their party and in the country to stand at the head 
of the United States government. 

Is the whole Republican party acting in this way? 

No. Many conscientious high-minded Republicans have determined, 
if possible, to purge their party of this foulness and have, for the time 
being, broken away from it. They have publicly expressed their re- 
solve to have no hand or part in such shame. 

What can induce men of usually sound judgment to act as Mr. 
Blaine's supporters are acting? 

Blind, unreasoning partisanship. The machine politicians among 
them, being generally devoid of conscience, are led by the piospect of 
gain in the shape of offices. These men control large bodies of un- 
thinking followers That is not surprising. But that the thinking, 
otherwise honorable men of a political organization can be so utterly 



blinded by party spirit as to trample upon tbe plainest laws of morals 
in supporting a man totally unfitted for the presidential office, is a sad 
and grievous thing. 

Do they then hold "party" dearer than conscience? 

Unfortunately it would seem so. Or, at least, they are so desperately 
intent upon keeping their party in power that they either refuse to be- 
lieve the plainest evidence or satisfy themselves with quibbles which if 
employed towards themselves in their everyday business would revolt 
and outrage them. 

What do you conclude trom this? 

That party spirit carried to extremes, as in the present instance, 
befogs the mind, warps the judgment; deadens the sense of honor and 
is a bad, dangerous thing. 

Why dangerous? 

Because the majority of mankind are led, and are prone to adopt the 
views of their leaders upon matters of right and wrong. The greatest 
popular convulsions the world has ever seen have originated in the 
baneful influence of popular leaders without conscience. 

From which you further conclude — 

That there rests upon the men whom the people honor with their 
confidence, and to whom they look for guidance, a tremendous respon- 
sibility which ought to deter them from breaking down the barriers 
between right and wrong, and which, in case of the highest place in 
the gift of the people, ought to render them exacting rather than 
lenient. By acting on a totally opposite principle, the present leaders 
of the Blaine party are educating the people to discard those sound 
principles of political judgment and action on which the safety of the 
Commonwealth is based. 

To come to the Speaker of the House 01 Representatives. What 
are his duties and functions? 

His weightiest duty is the appointment of the various House Com- 
mittees Of these Committees there are over forty, the most im- 
portant being those on Appropriations, on Wavs and Means, on Rail- 
ways atrd Canals, on Banking and Currency, on Commerce, orr Military 
and Naval Afftirs, on Post Offices and Post Roads, on Public Lands, 
on Public Buildings, on Pacific Railroads, on Rivers and Harbors, on 
Pensions, Claims, War Claims, Treasury, War, and Navy Depart- 
ments, etc. 

Is the responsibility of the speaker in appointing these Committees 
great ? 

Undoubtedly. Practically they hold the purse strings of the nation. 
All legislation affecting great corporations, willing to pay handsomely 
for ''favors," is subject to certain among them. 

From which you argue? 



That nothing is simpler than for a speaker, who desires to "make 
the most of his opportunities," to appoint on these Committees inti- 
mates of his own with an understanding that the profits of corruption 
are to be divided. The ways in which his power may be abused to his 
own advantage are numberless. 

Should the Speaker, then, be above suspicion ? 

Mr. Blaine's apologists distinctly affirm that he need be nothing 
of the sort, but that a strong flavor of jobbery is rather a feather in his 
cap. 

To which you reply? 

It is left to the conscience of the people to settle that question in 
November. 

To proceed : What are the charges made against the Republican 
candidate ? 

That, while Speaker of the House of Representatives, he used his 
official position to favor a certain railroad enterprise at the expense ot 
the people's interests; that for so doing, after reminding the bene- 
ficiaries that he had done them a ijreat favor, he received a large con- 
sideration (stock and bonds of ihe road); that when pressed as to this 
transaction by a Congressional Committee, he denied ever having 
received any such bonds, except upon the open market terms of 
purchase; that his correspondence with Josiah Caldwell and Warren 
Fisher, Jr., shows such statement to have been false in every particular; 
that he got possession from Mulligan of a portion of the correspondence 
incriminating him, refused to return it, aud begged Mulligan on his 
knees not to hand it to the Committee, as it would be his ruin; that 
when the Committee was nearing the end of the enquiry he was con- 
veniently sunstruck, and so remained until the end of that Session ot 
Congress ; that by device he got into the Senate, and so removed himself 
from the jurisdiction of the House of Representatives ; that he did uot, 
as a man of honor should have done, insist upon the vindication of his 
character by the prosecution of the Committee's enquiry at the end ; 
that, having official knowledge of a proposed expansion of the Currency 
to the amount of from fifty to seventy millions, he offered to use his 
official position and influence to procure through favoritism, as he 
himself expressly stated, a bank charter for men to whom he acknowl- 
edged himself indebted for letting him share in profitable schemes 
without any risk to himself; that by such jobbing and trading of his 
official position and influence he laid the foundation of a fortune which 
to-day he counts by millions ; that during his whole career in the House 
of Representatives and the Senate he has been the stoutest Champion 
of the great Railroad Corporations against legislation framed to force 
them to keep faith with the people of the United States ; that, as Sec- 
retary of State his craving for notoriety betrayed him into positions 
which brought humiliation and contempt on the Administration and its 



foreign policy, notably in his attitude towards Great Britain on the 
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty question, and towards Peru on that of the 
Laudreau Guano claims. 

Have these charges against Mr. Blaine been proved ? 

The best men of the Republican party are so satisfied with the proofs 
that to-day they are at the head of organizations whose sole avowed 
aim and object is to defeat Mr. Blaine at the polls. 

To what do these gentlemen point in proof? 

To Mr. Blaine's own correspondence, comprising about twenty-five 
letters written by him to Warren Fisher, Jr., of Boston. To his 
speeches and votes in Congress. To Senator Edmunds' letter, expressing 
his belief that Mr. Blaine was on the side of the Railroads during the 
great struggle over the Thurman Act in 1878. To his Stat<-» Papers, 
written while head of the State Department, especially his corre- 
spondence with Earl Granville, and his instructions to S. Hurlbut, the 
then United States minister to Peru, &c. 

Why is Mr. Blaine's published correspondence with Warren Fisher, 
Jr., called the "Mulligan" letters? 

Because Mulligan was Fisher's bookkeeper, and also cashier of the 
Adams Sugar Refinery, Boston, in which Fisher was a partner. Upon 
Fisher's insolvency Mr. Blaine's letters came into Mulligan's hands 
with the other assets. Fisher was also a contractor for a portion of the 
Little Rock and Fort Smith R. R. , and was also a business partner of 
Mr. Blaine's brother-in-law. Mulligan took these letters to Washington 
to use them in case of need before a Committee appointed to investigate 
the sale of certain Little Rock and Fort Smith bonds to the Union 
Pacific R. R. Co., for which it was charged that the Union Pacific Co. 
had paid largely in excess of their actual or market value. This 
transaction was laid at Mr. Blaine's door, and the Committee were 
really investigating him. The fact of Mulligan, Fisher's bookkeeper, 
having held the letters involving Mr. Blaine in the Little Rock and 
Fort Smith bond business, caused these documents to be called the 
"Mulligan" letters. 

Then they were not written by Mulligan ? 

No. They were written by James G. Blaine. 

Was Mr. Blaine aware of the existence of these letters at the time 
the Committee was investigating him ? 

He was made aware of it by Mulligan informing the Committee that 
he had the documents with him in Washington. 

Upon this announcement, what did Mr. Blaine do? 
He at once asked Mr. Lawrence, the Republican member of the 
Committee, to " move an adjournment." 
Did the Committee adjourn? 



8 

Yes, until ten o'clock the next morning. 

What happened then ? 

Mr. Mulligan then made the following statement under oath: 

"I would ask the indulgence of the Committee to make a personal 
and, to me, a painful statement. When I lirst arrived in this city, and 
within about fifteen minutes after my arrival, there came a communi- 
cation from Mr. Blaine to Mr. Fisher. Of course, I wish it to be 
understood I am stating this under oath. 

Mb. Huston. We so understand it. 

Mr. Mulligan. There came a communication from Mr. Blaine, 
inviting Fisher and me up to his residence. I declined to go, for 
the reason that I did not want to have it said that I had gone to 
see Mr. Blaine. I wanted to come to this committee room un tram- 
meled by any influence. Mr. Usher went up to Mr. Blaine's house, 
or at least, he so reported to me ; and he told Mr. Blaine about ceitain 
facts that I could piove, and certain letters that 1 had got. Mr. Blaine 
said that if I should publish them they would ruin him for life, or that 
if this committee got hold of them they would ruin him fur life, and 
wanted to know if I would not surrender them. I told him "no," and 
that I would not give ihem to the committee unless it should turn out 
that it was necessary for me to produce them. After my examination 
here yesterday, Mr. Blaine came up to the hotel, the Rigtrs House, and 
there had a conference with Mr. Atkins, Mr. Fisher, and myself. He 
wanted to see these letters that I had. I declined to let him see them. 
He 'prayed, almost went on his knees — / would say on his knees — and 
implored me to think of his six children and his vrife, and that if the 
committee should get hold of this communication, IT would SINK him 
IMMEDIATELY AND RUIN HIM FOREVER. I told him I should not 
give them to him. He asked me if I would let him read them. 1 said 
I would if he would promise me on the word of a gentleman that he 
would return them to me. I did let him read them over. He read 
them over once and called for them again and read them over again. 
He still importuned me to give those papers up. I declined to do it. I 
retired t<» my own room and he followed me up, and went over the same 
history about his family and his children, and implored me to give them 
up to him, and even contemplated suh-ide. He asked me it I wanted 
to see his children left in that state, and he then asked me again if I 
would not let him look over these papers consecutively (I had them 
numbered). I told him I would if he would return them to me. He 
took ihe papers, read them all over, and among them I had a memoran- 
dum that I had made by way ot synopsis of the letters, and refer ring 
to the number of the letters — a synopsis containing ihe points of the 
letters. I had made that memorandum so as to be able to refer to here 
when questioned. He asked me to let him read the letters and I showed 
him this statement too. After he had them read, he asked me what 



I wanted to do with those papers; if I wanted to use them. I told 
him I never wanted to use the papers, nor would not show them to the 
committee unless called upon to do so. Then he asked me if I would 
not give them to him. There was one letter in particular that he wanted 
me to give to him. I told him I would not do it, and the only- 
reason I would not do it was because I saw it stated in one of the 
evening papers here, the Star, I think, that the Blaine party were going 
to completely break down the testimony I hat I had given yesterday — 
that they were satisfied about that. I said I should not publish these 
letters unless my testimony were impeached or impunged. This was 
the only reason that I wanted to keep them, but I wanted to keep them 
for that purpose. These are the facts, gentlemen, and I leave them to 
you. If 1 understood the order under which the committee meets, this 
committee has power to send for persons and papers, and I want the 
committee to get for me those papers. Mr. Blaine has got them, and 
would not give them up to me. 

By Mr. Lawrence — Mr. Blaine has these papers? A. Yes; he took 
them from me last night. 

To Mr. Lawrence — No one was present but Mr. Blaine and I. * * 
I did not get them (the letters) surreptitiously. They were given to me 
by Mr. Fisher for any purpose I deemed proper. 

To Mr. Ashe — Mr. Blaine has the memorandum. 

Did Mr. Blaine produce the aforementioned letters before the committee? 

He did not, neither did he return them to Mulligan. He sub- 
sequently read them to the House in such order and with such omis- 
sions as he deemed necessary to his exoneration, adding that they 
formed the whole — his own words were : "every scrap and scrimption" — 
of the letters withheld from Mulligan. 

Was the whole correspondence comprised in the letters withheld by 
Blaine 1 

By no means; for even as late as September 15th, 1884, Messrs. 
Fisher and Mulligan published another series of Mr. Blaine's letters 
relating to the same transactions, which were, if possible, more damaging 
than those previously published. 

What do these letters prove? 

The honorable men of Mr. Blaine's own party who are strenuously 
opposing his election claim that they completely prove the bulk of the 
charges hereinbefore recited as being made by them against him. 

Can you give any extracts from these letters which prove or tend to 
prove the charges made, with such comments as may throw light on 
the con espondence ? ^ 

Mr. Blaine, in his letter of June 29th, 1869, writes to Fisher: "Your 
offer to admit me to a participation in the new railroad enterprise is in 
every respect as (jenerous as 1 could expect or desire. 

Mr. Blaine solemnly asserted that he purchased the bonds at the open 



10 

market price. If that was the case, how could Mr. Fisher be generous 
to him in the matter? 

He next speaks of Caldwell's disposing of a share of his interest to 
him (Blaine). This cannot have meant selling it to him, because, just 
after, in his letter Blaine says that "perhaps if he (Caldwell) waits 
until the full development of the enterprise, he (Caldwell) might grow 
reluctant to part with the share, adding-, he (Blaine) did not by this 
mean any disfrust of him (Caldwell). If Blaine were buying this share, 
or intending to buy it at the full market value, his words would have 
no sense. 

In order to spur Fisher's generosity to prod Caldwell's possible 
reluctance, Blaine adds: I do not feel that I shall prove a deadhead in 
the enterprise, if I once embark in it. I see various channels in which 1 
Tcnou) I can be useful. 

The honorable Republicans who charge Mr. Blaine with prostituting 
his official position as Speaker of the House of Representatives for 
private gain ask : What, to any man of sense, is the plain meaning ot 
these words used to Mr. Fisher and Caldwell ? Is it not that the man 
who had been to him in every respect, while admitting him to a 
participation in the new railroad enterprise, as generous as he could 
expect or desire, might count upon a quid pro quo f If Mr. Blaine paid 
or intended to pay for his bonds in the Little Rock &. Fort Smith R. R., 
wdiat need was there for him to evince his gratitude for a generosity 
which snapped up his money like that of any common speculator, by 
assuring Fi«*her he saw various channels in which he knew he could be 
useful % Did the man who read these lines from the Speaker of the 
House of Representatives construe them as meaning: I intend to buy 
my bonds at the open market rate, and feel so delighted as being able 
to do so that I consider myself greatly indebted to those who are kind 
enough to take my money for them ? 

Mr. Blaine stated, did he not, that he never owned a share of stock 
or a bond of the above mentioned railway for which he did not pay the 
open market price ? 

He did. 

What has Mr. Fisher to say to this? 

In a letter dated April 12th, 1872, to Mr. Blaine, Mr Fisher says : 
"I have loaned you at various times, when you were comparitively 
poor, very large sums of money, and never have you paid me one 
dollar from your own pocket, either principal or interest. I have paid 
sundry amounts to others to whom you were indebted, and these debts 
you have allowed to stand unpaid like the notes which I hold. I have 
placed you in position whereby you have received very large sums of 
money without one dollar of expense to you, and you ought not to 
forget the act on my part. Of all the parties connected with the 
Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad no one has been so fortunate as 



11 

yourself in making money out of it. You have obtained subscriptions 
from your friends in Maine for the building of the Little Rock and 
Fort Smith Railroad. Out of their subscriptions you obtained a large 
amount, both of bonds and money, free of cost to you. 1 have your 
own figures and know the amount. Owing to your political position 
you xcere able to woik off all your bonds at a very high price, and 
the fact is known to others as well as myself. Would your friends in 
Maine be satisfied if they knew the facts/ 
Now as to the Bank Business. 

In a letter from Augusta, Maine, dated November 18th, 1869, Mr. 
Blaine writes to Mr Fisher: "It is quite evident to my mind there will 
be an expansion of the Currency to the amount of fifty to seventy-five 
millions of dollars. The form it will take, I think, will be an addi- 
tion to the National Bank Circulation AVest and South. My object in 
writing is to ask in season if your friends would desire to estahlish a 
Bank at Little Rock ? It will be to some extent a matter of favoritism 
as to who gets the Banks in the several localities, and it will be in my 
power to "cast an anchor to the windward" in y'r behalf if you 
desire to. 

Well, these are sufficient extracts touching upon the charge of Mr. 
Blaine's using his official position in the manner alleged. Was there 
not, however, a letter from Mr Blaine containing copy of another 
letter of exoneration which Mr. Blaine requested Fisher to send him as 
though written by Fisher himself? 

Yes. And as this letter is quite characteristic, considering Fisher's 
letter of April 12th, just quoted, it is as well to give it in full : 

[Confidential.] 

Washtn, D. C, 16th April 1876. 

My Dear Mr. Fisher : You can do me a very great favor, and I 
know it will give you pleasure to do so — just as I would do for you 
under similar circumstances. Certain persons and papers are trying 
to throw mud at me to injure my candidacy before the Cincinnati Con- 
vention, and you may observe they are trying it in connection with the 
Little Rock and Fort Smith matter. 

I want you to send me a letter such as the inclosed draft. You will 
receive this to-morrow (Monday) evening, and it will be a favor I shall 
never forget if you will at once write me the letter and mail the same 
evening. 

The letter is strictly true, is honorable to you and to me, and will 
stop the mouths of slanderers at once. 

Regard this letter as strictly confidential. Do not show it to anyone. 
The draft is in the hands of my clerk, who is as trustworthy as any 
man can be. If you can't get the letter written in season for the 



12 

9 o'clock mail to New York, please be sure to mail it during the night 
so that it will start first mail Tuesday morning; but if possible, I pray 
you to (jet it in the 9 o 'clock mail Monday evening. Kind regards to Mrs. 
Fisher. Sincerely, J. G. B. 

[Burn this letter.] 

[Indorsed on the back.] 
Not knowing your exact address I send this to the Parker House in 
order that it may [not] be subjected to any danger in the hands of a 
carrier. J. G. B. 



The Western Union Telegraph Company. 

Dated Washington, D. C, 1876. 
Received at 9:44, April 16. 

To Warren Fisher, Commonwealth Hotel: Please go to 
Parker House to-morrow, Monday evening; on arrival morning mail 
from New York, find letter. Answer by return mail. 

19 D. H. J. G. BLAINE, 

xsm. 



Enclosed in the foregoing letter, dated 16th April, was the following: 

Boston, April 16, 1876. 
The Son. James G. Blaine, Washington, D. C. : 

Dear Sir : I observe that certain newspapers are making or rather 
insinuating the absurd charge that you own or had owned $150,000 of 
Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bonds, and that you had in some 
way obtained them as a gratuity. 

The enterprise of building the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad 
was undertaken in 1869 by a company of Boston gentlemen, of whom 
I was myself one. The bonds of the road were put upon the market 
in this city on what was deemed very advantageous terms to the par- 
chaser. They were sold largely through myself. You became the pur* 
schaser of about $30,000 of the bonds on precisely the same terms that 
every other buyer received, paying for them in instalments, running 
over a considerable period, just as others did. The transaction was 
peifectly open, and there was no more secrecy in regard to it than if 
you had been buying flour or sugar. I am sure you never owned a 
bond of the road that you did not pay for at the market rate. Indeed, 
I am sure that no one received bonds on any other terms. 

When the road got into financial difficulties and loss fell upon you 
you still retained your bonds, and you held them clear through to the 
reorganization of the company in 1874, exchanging them for stock and 
bonds of the new company. 

You acquired also some demands against the new company by reason 
of your having joined with others in raising some money when the 
company was in pressing need. For the recovery of that money pro 



13 

ceedings are now pending in the U. S. Circuit Court in Arkansas, to 
which you are openly a party of record. Concealment of the invest- 
ment at'd everything connected with it would have been very easy had 
concealment been desirable; but your action in the whole matter was as 
open and as fair as the day. When the original enterprise failed, I knew 
with what severity the pecuniary loss fell upon you. and with what in- 
tegrity and nerve you met it. Yen™ having since elapsed, it seems rather 
hard at this late d;»y to be compelled to meet a slander in a matter where 
your conduct was in the highest degree honorable and straightforward 
You may use this letter in any way that will be of service to you. 
Very sincerely yours, W. F., Jr. 

For the purposes in view that is sufficient. Give a brief outline 01 
the remainder of the correspondence. 

These letters, which can be readily procured, prove conclusively that 
Mr. Blaine did own both mortgage tn.nds and land bonds of the Little 
Rock and Fort Smith R. R. ; that he did not pay for them all at the market 
rates; that they came to him mostly under a contract with Fisher, by 
which he undertook to induce his friends in Maine to subscribe to the 
stock of the road; that his transactions were not open, for, in his letter 
to Fisher, of October 4th, 18U9. he says: li No one will ever know from, 
me that I have disposed of a single dollar in Maine ;" and that he was 
desperately bent upon making the most out of the job. 

What is the plain and fdir inference to be drawn from Mr. Blaine's 
course, as revealed in this correspondence ? - 

That his political position and influence were traded upon for purposes 
of private train. Further, that a man who fights for his "bone" with 
the dogged tenacity shown in this correspondence, was very unlikely to 
let any chance slip which came in his way. The fact that the most 
notorious lobbyist of this generation presented Mr. Bhiine, while 
Speaker of the Hou*e, with a testimonial, makes such an inference a 
perfectly fair one. The statements attributed to Mr. James F. Joy, the 
railway magnate of Michigan, by men who heard them from his own 
lips, point iu the same direction. 

What are those statements ? 

That he (Joy), wishing to have an able lawyer appointed on a 
Committee in a dispute between the Osage Indians and the Leavenworth, 
Lawrence and Galveston R. R., touching some valutbl* lands, applied 
to Mr. Blaine, then Speaker, to appoint such a man. On the following 
day an intimate fiiend of Mr. Blaine came to Joy and told him if he 
would buy of Mr. Blaine $25,000 in the bonds of the Little Rock and 
Fort Smith K. R. at par, Mr. Blaine would make up the Committee as 
far as possible just as Mr. Joy desired to have it made up. 

Why at par f 

Because at that time the bonds had greatly depreciated. 



14 

Does Mr. Blaine's recently published correspondence with the elder 
Sanford throw any further light on his stock transactions V 

Yes : it contains a false statement, more startling perhaps than any 
yet laid to his charge. In a long letter written by him to Joseph A. 
Sanborn, Oct. 29th, 1869, he asserted that the land grant of 1,600,000 
acres, belonging to the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, whs then 
selling at a minimum of $10 per acre. At that very time, the railroad 
was prohibited by then existing legislation from selling these very 
lands to settlers at more than $2.50 per acre, and this identical legisla- 
tion was not repealed until the early part of the year 1870. 

What else does the correspondence show ? 

That Mr. Blaine's assertion, apropos of the Hocking Valley Iron 
and Coal Land business, viz. : that he never induced any one to 
speculate in such matters, is not true. For, his letter to Sanborn of 
October 28th, 1869, while making the assertion in one sentence, utterly 
disproves it in another. 

What is the text of that letter ? 
The following : 

Parker House, Boston, Oct. 28th, 1869. 

Friend Sanborn : — Excuse my urging you to be punctual in your ad- 
vising me of your final conclusion touching the railway matter. There 
are parties here pressing Fisher for a chance, and 1 am not able to 
prolong the option. You know I never urge any man into a specula- 
tion, but the more I see and know of this, the more confidence 1 feel 
in it. Yours hastily, 

J. G. Blaine. 

In his letter of October 26th, that is two days previously, what did 
Mr. Blaine write? 

" A rare chance is offered to those who will subscribe to the Common 
stock. It is offered only among friends in a confidential way." 

What did he write on May 6th, 1870 f 

"In regard to the Little Rock and Fort Smith I am completely satis- 
fied that your investment will really prove better than I ever re- 
presented it Do you desire any more of the stock and 

bonds ? If you do, it may be in my power to give you a chance, for 
/ still have some valuable options which I might give you partial ad- 
vantage of, in the absence of ready capital to take advantage myself of 

the investment If a gross sum of $40,000 could be 

raised [I] could command a splendid advantage on the investment/' 

Do thene quotations bear out Mr. Blaine's statement that he never 
urged any man into speculation ? 

Mr. Blaine's idea of "urging" may not tally with that entertained 
by mankind generally ; but if the most forcible kind of persuasion is 








15 

'not to be found in this correspondence, language has no definite 
meaning. 

What else do these letters reveal ? 

That he was anxious to hoodwink the man wlta, he said, had been 
(most generous in admitting him to a share in tpe enterprise, for he 
writes to Sanborn, on November 26th, 1869: is il don't want Mr. 
Fisher to know that I have made the optional agreejment, for he thinks 
half is absolutely mine. Just let that be private between us." 

What general observations does the foregoing evidence when properly 
substantiated, suggest? 'i 

That a few such facts are like the red spots on \the stomach of a 
patient suffering from typhoid fever. They indicate w'ith certainty the 
general condition of the blood, and the presence of dangerous disease. 

Anything else? 

Merely that the disease is highly contagious and infectious, especially 
if its nature is not acknowledged and it is not vigorously foombatted. 

Explain yourself. I 

I mean that all who are taught to look upon it as harmless £nd breathe 
the atmosphere vitiated by the patient, are likely to catch it. ^ 

With what result ? 

Rapid and universal corruption. 

Do Mr. Blaine's supporters take this view? 

No. They insist that such use of position and influence is not only 
legitimate, but commendable, and the logical consequence of their view 
is, that the man most deeply implicated in transactions such as those 
detailed in the foregoing pages, is the fittest man to represent the 
"strictest honor and integrity" of the country. 

On which you observe? 

That the advocacy of such views by a great political party is nothing 
less than a national calamity. 

Why? 

Because it holds out the highest rewards to the meanest of human 
vices. Because it tends to debauch the moral sense of a whole country 
and saps the very foundations on which good, clean government rests. 
Because it breeds in the people cynical distrust of, and contempt for 
their rulers, and strikes directly at the authority of law and order. 

On what is that authority founded? 

On truth and justice. 

What is a vote ? 

Every honest man's weapon and the country's defence against 
jobbery, corruption and misrule. 




16 

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Can a man vote as he pleases 1 \ 

A vote is a public trust to be used for the general welfare, and, conse- / 
quently, a nia-i is bound in honor and conscience, as between a fit and 
an unfit candidate for any weighty and responsible office, to vote against 
^J unfit candidate. 

How about buying and selling votes ? 

The man who does either the one or the other is a scoundrel, and all 
aiding and abetting in such work are scoundrels and traitors to the / 
best interests of their country. 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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